Abbott punative damages Law 360

 Abbott Laboratories fined $53M  Law360, Chicago (April 9, 2026)  A jury awarded $53 million in damages to four mothers claiming Abbott Laboratories concealed the risk of the illness associated with its formula from both the public and its regulators. The four babies contracted necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after being fed Abbott formula and have suffered long-term side effects. Thousands of similar cases are  pending in state courts against Abbott and competitor Mead Johnson.  Abbott’s expert witness, Dr. Jill Maron, a neonatal physician, testified that it would be “cruel” to discuss the risk of NEC with frightened mothers. Not only does her position make no sense, as doctors discuss scary risks with patients all the time, it buys into the “sexist trope” that women are too emotional to handle challenging facts, the judge said.

Nighttime is the right time to drive your business…This USA Today article (March 2025) gives an inside view of the competition between formula companies that driving their unethical marketing:

• Abbott’s goal was that the first-bottle-fed strategy would help generate more than $1.5 billion in sales,
• Behind their warm-and-fuzzy marketing, industry giants Abbott, maker of Similac products, and Mead Johnson, maker of the Enfamil line, have turned neonatal intensive care units into arenas of brutal competition.
• One Abbott document shown in the Whitfield trial said more than half of first feedings happen at night, adding, “Nighttime is the right time to drive your business.”

BREAKING: III Jury Hits Abbott Laboratories With $53M NEC Verdict

By Celeste Bott ·  Listen to article

Law360, Chicago (April 9, 2026, 7:04 PM EDT) — A Cook County jury on Thursday awarded a total of $53 million in damages to four mothers claiming Abbott Laboratories‘ preterm baby formula contributed to their babies’ development of a serious and often fatal gut condition, in the first of such claims to go to trial in Illinois.

After roughly 10 hours of deliberation Wednesday afternoon into Thursday evening, jurors allocated the damages by awarding Antonia Mendez $15 million , Eboni Williams $15 million, Casie Thompson $7 million and Kara Sharpe $16 million, all of whom had brought negligence, failure to warn and product defect claims on behalf of their minor children. The damages compensate the plaintiffs and their children for loss of a normal life, pain, suffering and emotional distress, risk of future harm and disfigurement.

Their infants had been diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis, a severe gastrointestinal illness, shortly after being fed Abbott’s Similac Special Care 24 baby formula at the Chicago-area hospitals where they were born prematurely. All four survived, but have suffered long-term side effects from the condition, and three of the babies had required surgery on their bowels in the weeks after they were born.

Judge John Erlich, who presided over the trial, said after the verdict was announced that he will grant the plaintiffs’ bid to put a question of punitive damages to the jury, and that the plaintiffs had made a case of willful and wanton conduct on the company’s part to warrant them. Jurors will return Friday to hear further arguments on that front.

Ruling from the bench Thursday evening, the judge said there was evidence that Abbott has concealed the risk of the illness associated with its formula from both the public and its regulators.

“Abbott knows there was a substantial risk for NEC that comes with feeding SSC to preemies, therefore a warning should be placed on the label or packaging or both,” Judge Erlich said.

He also had choice words for comments made on the stand by Abbott’s expert witness, Dr. Jill Maron, a neonatal physician who testified at trial that she thought it would be “cruel” to discuss the risk of NEC with frightened mothers, according to the judge. Not only does her position make no sense, as doctors discuss scary risks with patients all the time, it buys into the “sexist trope” that women are too emotional to handle challenging facts, the judge said.

“I find that testimony to be nothing short of astounding,” Judge Erlich said.

Over the course of a roughly four-week trial, attorneys for those plaintiffs argued they never would have agreed to their infants being fed Abbott’s formula had they been informed of the risk of NEC associated with its consumption.

Abbott has denied its formula is unsafe, but was unable to convince the jury that the infants had other risk factors that predisposed them to developing NEC, including being born prematurely at extremely low weights. The formula doesn’t cause NEC, but rather, breast milk is protective against it, according to the company.

An attorney for the company moved for a directed verdict Thursday evening, but Judge Erlich denied that motion.

The verdict marks the latest development in the more than thousands of similar cases pending in state courts against Abbott and competitor Mead Johnson, the maker of cow’s milk-based Enfamil. Other cases that have made it to a jury have yielded mixed results.

Mead Johnson lost its first trial with a $60 million verdict in March 2024. In July that same year, a Missouri jury awarded $95 million in compensatory damages and $400 million in punitive damages over bellwether claims that Abbott’s baby formula caused a premature baby to suffer NEC.

A few months later, a St. Louis jury cleared Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson of liability in the companies’ first joint trial over claims their baby formula caused NEC. But a judge later vacated that verdict and ordered a new trial last year, saying the defense “intentionally violated the court’s orders and rulings by improperly introducing the inadmissible evidence to the jury, time after time.”

Both companies also face multidistrict litigation in federal court, where Abbott has fared well so far. In October, an Illinois federal judge gave the company its third bellwether win in the initial slate of four bellwether cases in the MDL, saying the company successfully demonstrated that the plaintiff’s proffered human-milk-based alternative would not be feasible.

The plaintiffs are represented by Ashley Keller, Ben Whiting Amelia Frenkel and Jamie Price of Keller Postman LLC, and Sean Grimsley, Kenzo Kawanabe, Abigail Hinchcliff and Samara Hoose of Olson Grimsley Kawanabe Hinchcliff & Murray LLC.

Abbott Laboratories is represented by Hariklia Karis, Richard U.S. Howell and Britt Cramer of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Stephen V. D’Amore, Bryce A. Cooper, Matt Saxon and Michael J. Trucco ofWinston & Strawn LLP.

The cases are Mendez v. Abbott Laboratories, case number 2022L005377, Williams v. Abbott Laboratories, case number 2022L005401, Thompson v. Abbott Laboratories, case number 2022L005393 and Sharpe v. Abbott Laboratories, case number 2022L005381, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.

Jury orders Abbott to pay $70 million in preterm infant formula trial, company says

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/jury-orders-abbott-pay-53-million-preterm-infant-formula-trial-media-report-says-2026-04-10/